About the Project

Learning Forward, in collaboration with the Council of Chief State School Officers, is working with the Kentucky Department of Education and several school districts within Kentucky to transform professional learning and create a framework for a statewide, comprehensive professional learning system that supports deep implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and upcoming new assessments. Transforming Professional Learning to Prepare College- and Career-Ready Students: Implementing the Common Core’s primary goal it to ensure that all students leaving high school will be ready for college and career. This work is supported by Sandler Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Six states, Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington, serve as Critical Friend States to contribute to and learn from the transformation in Kentucky. The framework will include a vision for professional learning and methods for advancing, monitoring, and evaluating it. It will align state policies, practices, and supports to prepare and support educators to meet the challenge and deliver on the promise of Common Core State Standards and new assessments.

Learning Forward facilitates a task force of more than 40 members of the Kentucky education community. The task force is reviewing current policies and recommendations to charter a new course in statewide professional development standards tied to the Common Core. In partnership with the initiative's advisory council, critical friends, and Learning Forward staff, the task force is developing materials, protocols, and strategies to sustain the planning and improvement of professional learning related to Common Core implementation.

Project Partners

Learning Forward's purpose is ensuring that every educator engages in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves. Learning Forward is a nonprofit, international association of learning educators focused on increasing student achievement through more effective professional learning.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nationwide, nonpartisan, and nonprofit membership organization of the top education leaders from states in the nation. Its mission is to create a public education system that prepares every child for lifelong learning, work, and citizenship by focusing on the state-driven leverage points that will increase capacity to produce students ready to succeed as productive members of society.

The National Association of State Boards of Education is the only national organization giving voice and adding value to the nation's State Boards of Education. A non-profit organization founded in 1958, NASBE works to strengthen state leadership in educational policymaking, promote excellence in the education of all students, advocate equality of access to educational opportunity, and assure continued citizen support for public education.

The National Governors Association (NGA)--the bipartisan organization of the nation's governors--promotes visionary state leadership, shares best practices and speaks with a collective voice on national policy. Founded in 1908, the National Governors Association is the collective voice of the nation's governors and one of Washington, D.C.'s most respected public policy organizations. Through NGA, governors identify priority issues and deal collectively with matters of public policy and governance at the state and national levels.

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is a national alliance of educator preparation programs dedicated to the highest quality professional development of teachers and school leaders in order to enhance PK-12 student learning. The 800 institutions holding AACTE membership represent public and private colleges and universities in every state, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam. AACTE's reach and influence fuel its mission of serving learners by providing all school personnel with superior training and continuing education.

MetLife Foundation is committed to building a secure future for individuals and communities worldwide through a focus on empowering older adults, preparing young people and building livable communities. In education, MetLife Foundation seeks to strengthen public schools through effective teaching and collaborative leadership, and to prepare students for access to and success in higher education, particularly during the crucial first year. The foundation's grantmaking is informed by findings from the annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people -- especially those with the fewest resources -- have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.

Sandler Foundation is a national foundation that works to improve quality of life. It seeks to promote education policy changes that support high-quality learning environments where learning is meaningful, substantive, and relevant to individual and societal needs and interests. The foundation focuses on equitable educational policies that create effective systems for effectively reaching students who are currently least well-served by the school system.